Musings on the Death of Loretta Fuddy

On Wednesday, Loretta Fuddy, director of the State of Hawaii’s Department of Health (HDOH), was reported killed in a plane crash off the coast of Molokai, Hawaii:

The Hawaii State Health Director who authorized the release of President Obama’s birth certificate in 2011 died Wednesday when her plane went down in the Pacific near a remote island.

Loretta Fuddy was the only person aboard the aircraft to die. The others, including the pilot, were either rescued by boat or swam ashore.

The crash was attributed to catastrophic engine failure, according to the plane’s owner, who allegedly heard it from the pilot, who didn’t call for help during the long minutes between takeoff and crash landing.

Some musings/questions about this story:

1. Was “Deliana” Fuddy found by rescuers in the fuselage, as reported in many news articles, or was she found floating in the water, wearing her life vest, as told to a Catholic priest by Keith Yamamoto, deputy director of the HDOH?

2. Was communication between the plane and the tower possible, or was it not? Did the pilot radio distress or not? If not, why not? How is it that the other plane in the area was able to radio a position?

3. Fuddy’s death was announced relatively quickly. The priest opined that she may have been dead for hours when he gave her last rites. Was she pronounced dead and her family notified before her death was reported to the media? If so, when, where, and by whom was she pronounced dead?

4. Why are Fuddy and Yamamoto the only named passengers? Who was the pilot?

5. How could the NTSB so quickly declare that the wreckage is unrecoverable? Molokai is an island, which is nothing more than an undersea mountain. Given the underwater slope of the island and the fact that the crash was allegedly just offshore, how is it that the wreckage cannot be recovered?

6. Was that plane capable of a controlled landing? In other words, could it glide so that a skilled pilot could set it down intact? Given that 8 of the 9 passengers survived with few injuries, it would seem so.

8. The plane left the airport at 3:15 p.m., local time. What time did the plane crash and when were the first reports of the crash received? How long before rescue workers got on the scene? How far off shore was the crash site? Some stories say a half mile; others say a mile.

After being alerted to the crash, the U.S. Coast Guard scrambled two helicopters and a Hercules plane to the site, which was about a mile from the shore. Rescue swimmers were also deployed and they winched three passengers onto the helicopters. … Joseph Ferguson [pilot of the rescue plane] … told NBC News that usually they would drop rescue gear into the water for the survivors but because the helicopters had arrived quickly so that was not required. “We acted as the on scene commander,” Ferguson, an avionics electrical technician, third class, said. “So we control all the different assets flying around there and made sure no one flew into that air space.” Maui Fire Rescue were involved in bringing others to safety. [See his photos here.]

Why did the first story cited in this post state that passengers were rescued by boat or swam ashore, and yet other stories say one swam ashore and three were hoisted into helicopters, with the rest being picked up by fire boats?

10. How is it that the owner believed that everyone was out fine and yet Fuddy either was or was not still in the fuselage, but in any case dead? How many were truly on that plane? Where is the manifest?

There are many other oddities and discrepancies in the reporting of this story, which I leave to commenters to point out. Previous discussions about her death can be read here and here. Video of the plane owner here.

We await further word on the cause of her death and, of course, the results of the official crash investigation.

Our condolences to the family of the deceased. May they learn the truth about their loved one’s death. We wish this fervently for them, as we also wish this for the families of the deceased at Benghazi–that some day they finally learn the truth about their loved ones’ deaths.

Oh, how ridiculous. You know, she had probably, then, an excess 100 pounds of fat to serve as a life vest to supplement the infant vest. 220 pounds? She looked short to me. It’s next to impossible to sink someone that fat. I know because, as a child, we used a fat relative as a floating life raft. He floated like a cork. When we got tired swimming, we’d go hang on to him. I’m not making this up and he enjoyed every minute of playing with us in the water. It’s just a fact. Fat does not sink.

I know! I was reading the report and it said a 160# man also inadvertently put on an infant vest. He said it was “tight” but worked ok. Soooo, if a large adult can wear one how could it possibly work on and infant?
And no, I don’t remember anything about a married couple or about anyone being seriously injured other than Loretta who hyperventilated to death.

Good point. How does an infant vest work on a baby if it’s big enough to fit on an adult?

Well, it looks as if they put the adult’s head through the hole where the infant’s TORSO is supposed to be. Who can say?

They also claim that part of the vest didn’t inflate properly. I don’t know how useful the vest would be in the ocean, in choppy water, but wouldn’t it have been more helpful for Fuddy (who really didn’t appear to be struggling) to just take if off and hang her chest over the part that DID inflate? Those water noodles will keep a person afloat and, as I said, it’s hard to sink a 220-pound woman (as opposed to a 220-pound man who would be, perhaps, hard muscle versus pounds of floaty fat).

Wouldn’t you expect that if she were having trouble staying afloat, she would have SAID SOMETHING to all the others around her, so they would HELP SUPPORT HER and keep her from drowning, which, btw, she did NOT do? It’s a red herring.

What are they implying–that she was struggling so much that she became exhausted and anxious, which caused her heart to go into palpitations and then stop? Again, if so, was she unconscious or something that she couldn’t EXPRESS to her fellows her suffering and ask them to help her FLOAT and survive?

She just went quietly, all by herself, into that good night? Didn’t call out when she drifted away? And what about the “friend” and co-worker who claimed to be hanging onto her hand. When she drifted off, didn’t it occur to him to SHOUT OUT to everybody else so they’d go together after her, to save her life? A singularly unempathetic and selfish bunch of human beings, if we’re to believe the story.